WO2005/065509 discloses a system for controlling washroom dispensers. The system may include a first set of product dispensers in a first washroom and a second set of product dispensers in a second washroom that communicate respectively with first and second data communications units. The first and second data communications units in turn communicate with a central washroom monitoring station. The first set of product dispensers may be a first towel dispenser, a first tissue dispenser and a first soap dispenser, while the second set of product dispensers may be a second towel dispenser, a second tissue dispenser and a second soap dispenser. Each dispenser includes a dispenser sensor unit for detecting a product low condition. The dispenser sensor unit of the first set of product dispensers may communicate wirelessly with the first data communications unit and the dispenser sensor units of the second set of product dispensers may communicate wirelessly with the second data communications unit. The first and second data communications units communicate with the central washroom monitoring station to provide a product low warning message for any one of the dispensers so that a janitor or maintenance person can be dispatched to refill the product as necessary.
The communications between the dispenser and the data communications units and the washroom monitoring station can be wired or wireless. In some implementations, the data communications units can be left out and the dispensers can communicate directly with the washroom monitoring station. In one implementation, the maintenance personnel can inspect the dispensers by logging into an interface with the data communications units from the washroom monitoring station. This interface could be a website provided with data from the data communications units. The maintenance personnel could inspect such a website from an internet capable handheld device so that maintenance requirements can be inspected on site, but not necessarily in the particular washroom that has the dispenser in a low product condition. Alternatively, the washroom monitoring station can send an SMS or email to the relevant maintenance personnel of the low product condition and the location of the relevant dispenser.
Importantly, the maintenance personnel are informed of the requirement for product refills without having to physically inspect each dispenser in each washroom. The efficiency of use of the maintenance personnel can thus be improved.
WO 2005/065509 also discloses (reference is made to FIG. 34) a camera 1132 positioned for viewing the floor of a washroom. The camera is capable of viewing water 1134 from a water spillage on the floor or debris 1136 such as used paper towels thrown on the floor. In one implementation, a user monitors the washroom floor captured by the camera at a washroom monitoring station. That is, the video from the camera is transferred to the washroom monitoring station for viewing by maintenance personnel. Another proposal is for the camera or the washroom monitoring station to automatically alert on the presence of water or debris. WO 2005/065509 does not describe any way of implementing such automatic debris detection.
The camera based system of WO 2005/065509 for detecting the presence of debris suffers from at least two drawbacks. Disposing a camera in a washroom, even at floor level, may not be tolerable at some sites or for some clients for privacy reasons. Further, automatic detection of debris in the washroom from the video captured by the camera is non-trivial to implement in a working system.